Police beat 3/27/14: Common thieves, the versatility of certain words and highwaymen at the hotels

A little Rock man came to meet somebody known to him only as “Mike” to buy a gold iPhone 5s listed for sale on Craigslist.com. The man met with “Mike” and the phone changed hands. It all went south, however, when the man was told by phone store employees that it couldn’t be activated because it had been reported stolen. The investigating officer called the number the man had for “Mike” and indeed did talk to someone named Mike, but Mike said that he’d lost his phone in a parking lot and gotten a replacement from the phone store. He said he had no idea how his phone number and name could have been used in an Internet scam.

• Vehicle break-in at 800 block of East Oak Street.

On Wednesday a hotel manager called police on behalf of a customer whose U-Haul trailer had been broken into late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. The victim was a man who stopped in town for the night in the middle of moving from Virginia to Colorado. The thief or thieves took items including two Harley-Davidson leather jackets, some Harley-Davidson chaps and gloves, a Skilsaw rotary saw and Skilsaw-brand drill and various hand saws and a set of “roller skis.”

• Vehicle break-in at 800 block of East Oak Street.

And at the same hotel, retirees from Alaska reported that the thief or thieves got into their trailer as well late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning and stole all of their luggage. The couple told police that the luggage had a week’s worth of clothes, medicine and supplies in it, and “multiple souvenirs and gifts from various locations.”

• Vehicle break-in at 400 block of Second Street.

A resident reported that at some point between Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning a thief or thieves got into a car through unknown means and stole a student’s backpack with a Toshiba laptop, a black-and-white shirt, some jeans and a digital recorder in it.

Officers responded Tuesday night to reports that a man was following a woman walking down the road and menacing her with some sort of stick or bat. Officers found two people matching the description apparently arguing outside of a house. The man reportedly said to the woman, “don’t tell them [expletive adjective] nothing,” and said to officers “I didn’t [expletive adverb] do anything wrong.” After some yelling and general belligerence, according to the report, the man was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication. While being booked in at the jail, the man allegedly threatened to kill the arresting officer, and so terroristic threatening is also listed as a possible charge. The woman, who told officers that witnesses who reported the incident had made it up and “needed to mind their own business” was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant.

• Common thievery at 300 block of East Oak Street.

A woman reported that at about 7 p.m. on Monday she left her car unlocked while she went into a gas station. When she came back out, she saw a person described in the report as young, blonde, skinny and fast running from the woman’s car and into a maroon Pontiac.

• More common thievery at 800 block of Oak Street.

On Tuesday night, a man reported, he stopped to get a drink at a gas station. While he was inside, a thief or thieves got into his car and took his keys.

• License plate theft at 400 block of Second Avenue.

At some point between noon on Monday and Wednesday afternoon a thief or thieves stole a license plate from a car.

• Found property at 1000 block of Front Street.

A citizen brought a very valuable Manfrotto-brand professional camera tripod to the police station after finding it on a downtown sidewalk. It’s being held at the station.